The June 2015 issue of The Scottish Genealogist was delivered to my desk recently and I came across a couple of articles that may be of interest to some of you.

The first is about the Edinburgh Sweating Club; I kid you not.  First appearing in 1750, this was apparently a band of young rogues who would go out drinking in the local hostelries and at midnight would sally forth and terrorise the local populace by snatching wigs off passers-by, chasing and jostling others. It is an interesting and amusing article.

A couple of pages further on in the same issue is a list of the members of the New Associate Congregation, Edinburgh (1785).  Have a look as you may find your ancestor listed; it gives names and place of residence.

Ever wondered where your ancestor went to school?  Another article in the same magazine is titled Scottish Charity Schools in the early 18th century.  This is a list of the charity schools run by the Society in Scotland for Propagating Christian Knowledge (SPCK) dated May 1724.  It gives the date of opening, place, parish, name of School-master, number of pupils divided into boys and girls.

The July/August 2015 issue of Your Genealogy Today has an article about records of those who worked on the Panama Canal titled – Finding Grandad at the Canal!  If you have lost one of your male ancestors then perhaps this may be something to consider.  The article mentions a several records that are of help with such a search.

Marie Hickey

What were working conditions of children like in Britain in the 1840s?

I was checking out the library edition of Ancestry.com for any newly added databases to bring to the attention of staff recently and came across the 1842 Commissioners’ report of children’s employment (appendix, trades and manufactures part 2) .  It is a very interesting document in that children and adults from all over the British isles have been interviewed about the working conditions children are being employed in.  Not only that but you get the child’s name, age, occupation, address of home and work and sometimes mention of other family members and pay rates.

Two children and a trolley laden with boxes, c.1928 Sir George Grey Special  Collections, Auckland Libraries.

The document has been name indexed so is searchable but there is also a name index at the end of the work as well.

If you are interested in social history, you will find this worth reading.  It is rather a lengthy tome but probably dipping in and out of the interviews would be enough to give a flavour of the document.

Marie Hickey